thinkbroadband

Kensington and Chelsea to now embrace a super-fast future
Wednesday 27 March 2013 10:51:25 by
Andrew Ferguson

Ten months ago there was the mass rejection of 96 street cabinet applications by the Royal Borough of
Kensington and Chelsea, but it seems after a lot of joint site visits locations
have actually been agreed for a total of 140 cabinets in the borough.

"Fibre broadband will provide a major boost both for residents and
businesses in the borough, so we’re glad to have been able to reach an
agreement with Openreach which allows for the deployment of this technology
whilst safeguarding the historic integrity of the borough. We look forward to
working with Openreach in a spirit of cooperation to maximise the benefits of
fibre broadband across Kensington and Chelsea as soon as possible."

Councillor Tim Ahern, the Royal Borough’s Cabinet Member for Planning
Policy,

Residents may already have noticed work starting, as 72 sites are under
construction and 18 cabinets are already live.

The possibility of the changes to the planning regulations may have helped
push the matter, as by working co-operatively within the current regulations
the council will perhaps have got a better result, and it is possible that the
reality that people consider broadband important when renting or buying
property is becoming more apparent to council's and developers.

Comments

Posted by
mabibby over 4 years ago
There demonstrates the benefit of being some of the most affluent boroughs in the UK.

Openreach fighting to meet with the council to plan their cabinets?

Unprecedented behavior...

Posted by
zhango over 4 years ago
Why did BT need to reach an agreement with K&C Council now the regs don't require planning approval in conservation areas - surely they could just install the cabinets anyway?

Posted by
Dixinormous over 4 years ago
@mabibby it's not unprecedented, the same happened in Richmond upon Thames and has probably happened in other places where there are a lot of conservation areas.

FYI the council in both cases asked to meet Openreach to discuss after Openreach's contractors simply sent in tens of planning applications with no prior discussion.

Where there are a lot of conservation areas it's smart to discuss things with the council in advance.

@zhango - those aren't law yet.

Posted by
Dixinormous over 4 years ago
It is interesting actually that this was news while Richmond upon Thames rejecting somewhere between 60 and 80 planning applications 2 years ago wasn't :)

Posted by
andrew ( staff member)
over 4 years ago
@zhango the new planning rules are not on the statute books yet, still being debated.

Posted by
andrew ( staff member)
over 4 years ago
@dixinormous

First I have heard of the Richmond one.

Posted by
undecidedadrian over 4 years ago
Of course since the mass rejections there was the news story that FTTC services added value onto the house value.

Those Daily Mail readers on the council were probably kicking themselves for rejecting FTTC.

Posted by
Dixinormous over 4 years ago
@undecidedadrian Had Harlequin discussed the matter with the council they would've been fine. They didn't, they just sent in over 100 generally not up to scratch planning applications.

Posted by
Dixinormous over 4 years ago
@andrew - http://tinyurl.com/ccfmv9z

77 of 81 applications rejected. More amusing Openreach weren't aware of the number of applications that had been rejected. As you can see from this the level of communications between Openreach and Harlequin, their contractor, were dire.

Likely the same applied in RBKC.

Posted by
andrew ( staff member)
over 4 years ago
Yes, have seen in other areas that the sub contractors are sometimes poor at communication.

A very long thread on the forums, where a persistent resident has managed to do the liason essentially and now has their cabinet being commissioned.